Main cast: Michael Beach (Jonah), Anthony Ruivivar (Roman), Summer Bellessa (Naomi), Eugene Byrd (Davis), Kasia Pilewicz (Harper), Asenneth del Toro (Suzu), and Jamie McShane (Immanence)
Director: Kerry Bellessa
The word Immanence is often used to describe how there is a spark of the divine in every aspect of creation. This is the opposite of certain religious beliefs that perceive divinity as entirely separate from creation—that will be transcendence.
This is relevant because if you know what that word means, this is a giveaway that this movie is about religion. Christianity, to be specific.
In this movie, the principal characters are all looking for something.
Astrophysicist Naomi and her team are looking for proof that extraterrestrials exist. Jonah, the captain of a ship, is looking for evidence that God exists.
These characters have their paths cross when what appears to be a meteor streaks into the atmosphere and lands somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.
Well, what are these people waiting for? Naomi’s team charter Jonah’s ship to look for it, convinced that they may have find the evidence they have been searching for all this while. Jonah wonders whether the meteor is proof of the divine instead, but Naomi and her crew are all about science and having none of that woo-woo god stuff.
What will they find out there in the waters, though, if they could even locate it in the first place? They are heading into the Bermuda Triangle, after all!
The atheists are smug, patronizing, and rude to people that believe in God. This makes them as likable as crotch lice. Actually, that isn’t that far from real life, now that I think of it, as there are quite many people that act like their lack of religious belief makes them better people than those that do.
On the other hand, those in this movie that believe in God, like Naomi’s mother, for some reason only talk about their faith and assume that they have the right to push their belief onto others. Again, this isn’t a drastic departure from real life.
Even setting aside the believer-versus-heathen angle, Naomi’s team are as annoying as they come. They act kooky in a forced manner (especially Harper, who does these annoying hand waves and what not like a total annoying prat) when they aren’t rolling up their eyes and smiling patronizingly at one another as Jonah and his co-captain Davis—Davis owns the ship, actually—try to explain to them things such as safety and such.
Harper and Suzu also for some reason can’t stop doing that bimbo, like, so snarky, like, like, totally way of talking while putting on the most exaggerated facial expressions and vocal tone. Ugh.
All things considered, the atheists come off the worse here.
Still, both sides are obnoxious. It is as if the people behind this movie had taken the worst extremes of atheists, Christians, and nerds, and happily popped them in here to make me wince and cringe like I’m scrolling through Madonna’s Instagram and I can’t look away no matter how much my brain is screaming at me to.
A part of me wonders whether the aliens, God, Satan, whatever they will find in the Bermuda Triangle will decide that humanity is a lost cause and nuke the Earth there and then. Looking at these characters, I can understand the decision.
It’s a shame, really, that the characters are more likable if they had a few ax wounds on their skull. This is because the movie actually boasts some lovely imagery, haunting visuals, and some actually decent jump scares that don’t feel lazy or phoned in. It looks good for a movie made on a modest budget.
It is only after the one hour mark that someone hears my prayers, shows up out of the blue, and start eliminating these annoying douchebags in ways that bring so much joy in my heart.
Even then, it still pains me to see how Michael Beach and Eugene Byrd are trying to emote while Summer Belissa just stares blankly ahead and mouths her lines like she’s reading them aloud from some teleprompter for the first time. She’s supposed to be terrified but she sounds like a robot running low on battery. If the director and writer had to cast his wife in a main role, why couldn’t he marry someone that can act?
In the end, Immanence is a missed opportunity, thanks mostly to the script turning the main characters into insufferable twats. Sadly, only Mr Beach and Mr Byrd seem to be the only ones that get the memo that they need to emote appropriately for their scenes, instead of just turning in blank stares or using either an emotionless or overly exaggerated tone of voice for every scene.
What a waste. I was hoping for some halfway-intelligent spiritual horror, only to get a film that just shows how atheists and believers are just two sides of the same feces-smeared coin.
